Selection includes Reminiscences of Václav Talich.
Selection includes Václav Talich rehearsing Dvorák's Cello Concerto.
Selection includes Speech by Václav Talich on his name day.
Selection includes Václav Talich rehearsing Dvorák's "New World" Symphony.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

R. STRAUSS Serenade for Winds. Symphonie for Winds. DVO?ÁK Serenade for Winds • Sabine Meyer Wind Ens • CAVI-MUSIC 553014 (70:14)


In the relatively insular world of classical music for wind ensemble, Mozart’s Serenade No. 10, “Gran Partita” is the towering colossus that profoundly influenced nearly all of the similar works that followed, though it must be stated that the literature for combinations of wind instruments is certainly limited. This is not a phenomenon on the level of the effect of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde on virtually every subsequent composer who was forced to deal with it in one way or another. The three pieces on this CD are important pillars of the wind-ensemble literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The music of Strauss and Dvo?ák reflects the influence of Mozart, but in their own highly personal and individual ways. The Strauss pieces essentially apply bookends to his career. The Serenade, op. 7, written at the age of 16, displays the expected rich, romantic, harmonic textures and a flowing melodic line, but there are also hints of Mozart’s “Gran Partita.” Strauss was apparently not completely satisfied with the scoring of his youthful Serenade for four horns and nine other wind instruments. Following the completion of his last opera Capriccio , he returned to the wind ensemble near the end of his life and produced the unconventionally large-scaled Symphonie for Wind Instruments (also known as “Cheerful Workshops”). It is elaborately scored for 12 winds, in addition to the same four horns utilized in his youthful Serenade . The Symphonie explores many of the brilliant and characteristic wind effects that appeared in many of his major orchestral works and operas throughout his career.


Dvo?ák’s well-known Serenade is filled with references to various Bohemian dances, but the influence of Mozart is also there. This is especially apparent in the Andante, where he ingeniously metamorphoses the melodic contours and bass line of the Adagio from the “Gran Partita” into something that is all his own, as an apparent homage to Mozart. The Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble plays the music nearly flawlessly in an affectionate but low-key sort of way. The effect is augmented by sound that is quite different from the Eastman Wind Ensemble’s demonstration recording that includes Mozart’s “Gran Partita” and Strauss’s early Serenade . As expected, Mercury gives us analytical clarity with an up front aural perspective that clearly emphasizes the subtle timbral nuances and colorations of the different wind combinations. This approach also presents a lot of clicking and clacking that will be annoying to some listeners.


This Cavi-Music CD is recorded with a more distant mid-hall perspective in what sounds like a larger hall with a darker tonal color. The instruments sound more congealed and at times slightly muffled, but there is little or no audible clicking. I prefer the Mercury approach because of its tonal and timbral accuracy, immediacy, and presence, but that is also a matter of taste. The response of many listeners to what is undoubtedly great wind music, played excellently, will be about sonority. The sound of a wind ensemble is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. If you like it, you will undoubtedly enjoy this well-chosen and well-performed concert.


FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen

Experience the lush sound of the Dresden Piano Trio performing classic trios by composers Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, and Josef Suk. This recording evokes the passionate nature of the repertoire, creating a memorable musical journey for the listener.

The Dresden Piano Trio, comprised of Roglit Ishay, piano, Kai Vogler, violin and Peter Burns, violoncello, was founded following a cooperation between Kai Vogler and Roglit Ishay at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. The ensemble debuted in 1990 in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie. The trio has given many concerts throughout Germany and the rest of Europe. The repertoire includes all the major works for piano trio from the late Romantic era to the early 20th century.

REVIEW:

This is the world premiere recording of Hindemith’s Piano Music with Orchestra (piano left hand), commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein in 1922 and completed within six months. Wittgenstein—a musical reactionary—never played it; the commissioning contract gave him exclusive performance rights for his lifetime, and he prohibited anyone else from doing so. After his death in 1961, his estate ignored all requests about the piece; in fact, it had lost the score. A flawed copy of the original manuscript turned up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse in 2002 and was successfully coordinated with sketches in the Hindemith archives. Fleisher gave the first performance with the Berlin Philharmonic in December 2004. Hindemith was just emerging from his avant-garde youth at that time. The radical firebrand still shows up in three of the four movements, which are played without pause.

The introduction is aggressive, loud, and brassy, but it does suggest the more staid Hindemith to come. The second movement is filled with outbursts from a large percussion group. A mysterious slow movement features a long duet between piano and English horn, which later gives way to a flute; it is reminiscent of the aborted love scene in the composer’s 1926 opera Cardillac. Fleisher believes that the movement’s basso continuo, which consists of 12 quarter notes (repeated) and uses 11 of the 12 tones, was poking fun at Schoenberg’s recently devised dodecaphonic system. The finale returns to the wild, nose-thumbing style of Hindemith’s 1920 opera Das Nusch-Nuschi.

Fleisher “owns” the left-hand repertoire, and is in this case the unique interpreter. He convinces one listener that this is exactly how the piece should go, revealing everything it has to say. The Curtis orchestra supplies solid, reliable accompaniment. If a few solos are not quite as beautiful as those from the New York Philharmonic, Eschenbach’s views of the music seem more sensitive than Maazel’s and the students more comfortable with the 85-year-old music than the New Yorkers.

Dvorak’s “New World” is played to top professional standards—the strings are gorgeous, as is Rebekah Daley’s first-desk French horn—but I don’t find the reading very interesting. The recorded sound is merely decent and a bit congested, far from the brilliance Ondine achieved for Martinu’s Memorial to Lidice, also a live performance, but admittedly an SACD. The booklet lists every player but oddly gives no credit for English horn, despite that instrument’s important solos in both works. The program writers for both the New York Philharmonic and this disc may have had no opportunity to study Hindemith’s score or hear his music, as they concentrate on its fascinating history.

--James H. North, Fanfare

The three compositions on this album were all created at turning points in Dvořák’s life, when radical changes in his situation impacted his creative career. His Serenade for Strings was composed in 1875, the year the impoverished musician became a successful composer almost overnight. Each of its five movements is a variation on ternary (A–B–A) form. The resourcefulness with which Dvořák invents novel ways of returning from the middle section to the opening motive and key is astounding.

Silent Woods has much to do with Dvorak’s relocation to America. He was engaged to establish and direct a new National Conservatory in New York. Based on his now established ability to blend Czech folk music with large-scale classical forms, it was hoped he would do the same in his new post with American folk music. In 1892, before leaving his home for the US, Dvorak gave something of a farewell tour of Czech cities, writing the cello version of Silent Woods for performance on these recitals. Ten years later, Dvorak created the version for cello and orchestra recorded here. At the conclusion of his time in New York and on his return to Bohemia, Dvorak was focused particularly on writing his Cello Concerto. At first believing the cello an unsuitable instrument for concertante music, his mind changed on hearing a concerto by American composer Victor Herbert; Dvořák’s masterpiece took on definitive form in 1895.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Praised by critics as “magnificent”, “breathtakingly theatrical” and full of “zestful imagination”, Melly Still’s “spine-tingling” Rusalka is a Glyndebourne classic – a magical contemporary reimagining of a much-loved fairy tale. Light and darkness, beauty and danger come together in this passionate tale of love against the odds. At once evocative and unsettling, this production collides two contrasting worlds in Rae Smith’s elegant designs made of “brilliant stage-pictures”. Rusalka’s forest home is a dappled space of sunshine and shadows, full of strange woodland creatures, while the Prince’s court is a world of sleek modernity and sophistication – a world of man.

Two of the most popular string serenades: Dvorák's Serenade for Strings is full of melodic ideas and sensual melodiousness in a Bohemian tone. Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings is a sumptuous work, a "symphony without winds" so to speak, and combines rococo elegance with great romantic gesture. The BCO was founded in 2007 by Japanese conductor Toshio Yanagisawa in order to foster understanding among the Balkan nations, shaken by ethnic conflicts. Since then, the BCO has served as a cultural bridge connecting people through music, for many years now also around the world. The BCO consists of excellent musicians who serve as principal string players in orchestras of their home countries and take leading roles in the classical music scene in these Balkan countries. Despite the difficulties to promote classical music during the recovery process after the political conflict, the BCO's has been able to improve it's musical quality tremendously.

Often universal organs have the problem that they are not particularly well suited to either baroque or symphonic music. However, Daniel Kern's organ at Frauenkirche Dresden is a shining example of a very successful bridge between the different organ traditions. When choosing an instrument for this recording of Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" in Pascal Kaufmann's transcription for four-handed organ, the standard was to have good drawing abilities of the characteristic 8' and 4' basic stops. Thanks to the diversity of the pipe scales, on the one hand in the style of Gottfried and Andreas Silbermann, and on the other hand reminiscent of Cavaillé-Coll (France, 19th Century), there is a sufficiently large selection on the Kern organ. The very dynamic swell pedal with French reed stops and the setterboards with modern standards allow the players to keep the symphony lively with a total of over 400 different registrations. Two more works round off the release at hand: the Humoreske op. 101/7 by Antonín Dvorák in a transcription for (two-handed) organ by Edwin Lemare and "Der Heilige Franziskus von Paula auf den Wogen schreitend" S175 by Franz Liszt, also as four-handed transcription by Pascal Kaufmann - a work that once again illustrates the multifaceted nature of the Kern organ beautifully. The brothers Markus and Pascal Kaufmann come from Lichtenstein (Saxony). Their training pathways included studying together at the Dresden College of Music "Carl Maria von Weber" and the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Dresden. Pascal Kaufmann worked as assistant for Frauenkirche organist Samuel Kummer and is currently church musician in Augustusburg (Saxony) while Markus Kaufmann is working as Cathedral organist in Quedlinburg. The recordings for the album at hand were supported by Frauenkirche Foundation.

The Stabat Mater is Dvorák's most celebrated choral work. He began composing the piece in late 1875, but set it aside. Then, two tragedies befell him and he was plunged into an uncharacteristically melancholic mood. The deaths of his eleven-month-old daughter and three-year-old son compelled Dvorák to complete his masterpiece. Even though stricken with grief, Dvorák still could not resist writing simple, folk-like, melodies for his luminous Stabat Mater. On this performance, acclaimed conductor Mariss Jansons leads four superb soloists and the combined forces of the chorus and orchestra of the Bayerischen Rundfunk.